‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.’ (v18) John 3:16–21
It’s sometimes difficult to believe, when all the evidence suggests that all we are believing in is disintegrating before our very eyes. Each of us will have a story where, when invited to believe, we stumbled and messed up.
God doesn’t condemn us when we are seeking to believe but we run out of faith along the way. Questions pop up and we have to pause, reflect and make up our mind if we will believe or walk away disappointed.
Belief is to place our full confidence in God. Confidence simply means ‘firmly trusting’.* We’ve already noted that doubt accompanies faith – so we hold on by our fingertips. The Christian path is not necessarily easy, but it is simple.
It’s a lot easier to ditch God than hold on through the night, patiently waiting for dawn to break. There’s no hiding from the fact that belief will demand all we have.
Belief is an act of the will when reason and emotion yell their complaint and demand our surrender. But, if we will hold our ground, in time we will see the working of God’s purpose through our lives.
The Christian message is simply a conviction that, despite evidence to the contrary, God is present, always in charge and will sustain us. Darkness, believing that life is a roulette wheel based on chance, maybe easier to live with, yet offers us no greater assurance than believing in God’s promise.
SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER: Psa. 16; Lam. 3:1–33; Rom. 5:1–11; James 1:2–18.
AN ACTION TO TAKE: How much confidence do you have in God when prayers appear unanswered and outcomes are far from what you wanted or anticipated?
A PRAYER TO MAKE: ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief (Mark 9:24). Enable me to keep faith in You through the darkness. Amen.’
Photo taken from Pxhere.com
